FRONTIER MOCK TRIAL HISTORY

Frontier High School entered The New York State Mock Trial competition in the 2005-2006 school year with a small and new group of kids, who participated in class mock trials in Business Law and Personal Law.  Local attorney and Frontier graduate Dan Chiacchia took the role as advisor for our groups and starting in the very first year and helped build the foundation for how to complete a trial argument properly, step by step.

Lisa Poch, an attorney at Chiacchia and Fleming, took over the attorney advisor role in the 2011-2012 season and immediately added procedural legal techniques to the students practices.  Mrs Poch taught the students how to procedurally follow proper courtroom steps by making sure the record was clear.  In addition, she added a impeachment by omission lesson that was used by the first team she coached, to make a run all the way into the finals.  

Sarah Rera of Gross Shuman has been the attorney advisor starting in 2018 and has run the team through a run to the finals in 2024 and back to the semi finals this past year.   Mrs. Rera has guided the team through the Covid Livestream years and added lessons on stronger closing arguments for the kids to excel in.

Former Mock Trial students have gone on to law schools throughout the country and many have impressive undergraduate programs focusing on preparing for law school, entering the FBI, police or even entering engineering programs, medical programs, computer security related programs and more.  Frontier graduates that have been a part of this program have gone on to Yale, Cornell, Boston University, Colgate, Penn State, Johns Hopkins, University of Buffalo, Canisius and many more!   Each year, graduates have come back over college breaks to assist with the practice sessions with the current team.  Many former Frontier Graduates who are now practicing attorneys or judges have also assisted.